Fabric for fire-proof shields



(No Model.) v

' J. S. BROOKS.

Fabric for Fire Proof Shields. 1

NO. 237',805. Patented Feb. 15, 1881,

' 'IN-VEN TQR:

ATTEISTI v UNITED) STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN S. BROOKS, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

FABRIC FOR FIRE-PROOF SHIELDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 237,805, dated February 15, 1881.

Application filed December 27, 1880. (No model.)

lyn, Kings county, New York, have invented certain new and'useful Improvements in Fabrics for Fire Shields or Curtains, and Means and Methods for Employing Same, of which the following is a specification.

The purpose of my invention is to provide a light and flexible fire-proof shield or screen to interpose between a burning building and another in dangerous proximity thereto, the screen, by preference, being suspended from the roof of the building in danger in the manner of a curtain, so as to protect its front, or the portion before which the shield is hung, from the heat.

The invention consists partly in the fabric itself which I prefer to employ for my shield, and partly in the shield itself and the means employed for getting it into position, all as will be more particularly described hereinafter.

My object being to protect the front or face of a building from the heat radiated from an adjacent fire, I employ a curtain of fire-proof material of sufficient width to cover the exposed surface, and of sufficient length to reach from the cornice to the ground, or nearly so. To enable it to be easily handled, this fabric should be comparatively light, sufficiently flexible to be rolled, and strong enough to bear handling and its own weight, and made in" widths that may be easily conveyed while in rolls through narrow streets. To this end I prefer to employ a fabric composed of flexible asbestus paper or felt mounted on fine wire-- gauze, the'asbestus to serve as a non-combustible shield and the wire-gauze to give it strength. This fabric may be made in strips of, say, ten feet in width, and rolled on rollers, as maps are rolled. These rolls of fabric may be carried on alight vehicle to the point needed, and there the fabric may be unrolled and hauled up to the top of the building.

To enable the fabric to be properlyhandled and put up in stripsor sections, I provide the end of the strip with suitable eylets or holes to receive hooks attached to ropes and lowered by persons on the roof, and Iprovide the strip at intervals along its edges with means for attaching it to the strip adjacent when it is hauled up. This attachment may be simplya snap-hook to engage an eye, and I prefer to attach a snap-hook or plain hook to one edge of the strip, and arrange eyes along the other edge opposite thereto. Where the frontage to be protected requires several strips placed edge to edge, it is best to haul all up together, so that they may be attached at their edges as they unroll. When attached in this manner at their edges the wind will not have so much effect upon the strips, and they will keep their places better. The roller upon which the strips are wound may be secured to their inner ends, and when the strip is suspended the roll will serve as a weight and stretcher, or the lower ends of the strips may be secured to the ground or house. At the top they may be secured to nails or hooks fixed permanently or temporarily in the roof.

In the drawings, which serve to illustrate my invention, Figure 1 shows a strip of my fabric partly unrolled, a space being denuded of the asbestos covering to show the backing of gauze. Fig. 2 is a view of a reel for the fabric, designed to illustrate another method of conveying and handling it.

A is a strip of the fabric rolled upon a roller, B. This fabric consists of a sheet of asbestus paper or fabric, a, mounted on a backing of wire-gauze, b. To secure the paper to the gauze, I prefer to hem the gauze over onto the paper, or turn both overat their edges and ends, as shown at 0. At the center, or remote from the edges, the two may be secured together by means of metallic fastenings, as at (Z. Along the ends of the strip are eyelets e e or loops for engaging the hooks for hauling the strip to the roof, and along the edges are snaps f and eyelets or loops g, equally spaced, whereby the strips are connected together when they are hoisted.

The rollers B are provided with gudgeons h h, to support the roller while the strip is bein g wound thereon, and these may be provided with suitable bearings for the roller to turn in.

In Fig. 2 I have shown an ordinary hosereel, upon which is wound a continuous strip of my fabric. This strip is narrower than that before described, and the manner of hanging it is somewhat different. The bight of the strip is caught in a bail, O, the branches of which have eyes z' 2', through which a hook, j, let down from the roof, is passed. The bight is thus hauled up and fastened, and the bail is lowered to engage the bi ght of another portion of the strip which is drawn from the reel. Thus the strip passes up, down, and up, in succession until the surface to be shielded is covered.

I may interpose the wire-gauze between two layers of the asbestns; or, in lieu of the ordinary wire-gauze, employ strands of wire extending from end to end of the fabric and tied only at intervals.

I may also apply to the fabric a fire-proof and water-proof varnish or coating; but 1 do not thinlr this will be needed. In lieu, also, of the asbestus paper or felt I may employ a woven fabric of asbestus.

In lieu of the asbestus I may employ miucral wool, so-called, as a substantial equivalent of asbestus; or I may employ a mixture composed of both. As mineral wool is not suflicieutly fibrous to felt or form into a paper or cloth readily, a thin compact layer may be inclosed between sheets of wire-gauze to form a fabric for the curtain or shield. A combustible fabric, as canvas, might be saturated or coated with tungstate of soda or other fireproofing substance and employed in place of the asbestus; but I prefer the asbestus.

In place of employing the shield to protect the face of a building from a fire in another, the shield may be employed to separate a fire in one room or part of a building from the other rooms or parts-that is, it may be used internally instead of externally; or it may be fixed around an elevator'shaft to prevent a draft up the elevator in case of fire.

Having thus described my invention, and set forth its distinctive features, I claim 1. As a flexible fabric for fire shields or ourtains, a sheet of asbestus paper or its equivalent, provided with a strengthening non-combustible re-enforce, substantially as set forth.

2. A fire shield or curtain composed of a sheet of asbestus paper or its equivalent, mounted on and fixed to a sheet of wire-gauze, substantially as set forth.

3. A flexible fire-shield formed of a strip or sheet of ashestus fabric or its equivalent,

mounted on a sheet or strip of wire-gauze, and the wire-gauze turned over on the asbestus to form a hem at the edges, so as to secure the two parts together, substantially as set forth.

4. A flexible fire-shield formed of a fire-proof re-euforced fabric, as described, and provided with eyelets and fastenings at its end and edges, whereby one strip may be connected with the next adjacent, and the whole be raised up to the roof of the house, substantially as set forth.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

JOHA BROOKS.

Witnesses:

HENRY GoNNE'rr, ARTHUR (J. FRASER. 

